Seventy Years Waiting
by kates the firework
Summary: What if Bucky was never found by HYDRA, but instead spent seventy years in the ice just like Steve did? What if Director Coulson, fresh from the defeat of HYDRA, gets curious and decides to find the body, only to discover there is a chance he could be still alive? And what if this is one young agent's chance to finally prove herself in the field, alongside Coulson's famous team?
1. Chapter 1

**_Hello everybody!_**

 ** _This is an idea I saw on pinterest the other day and I thought it would be cool to turn it into a fanfic. The idea was that Bucky was never found be the HYDRA, instead he spent seventy years in the ice just like Steve, and someone decides to start looking for him. So I thought, what if Coulson, the Captain America fanboy, gets a brainwave some day and bands together some agents of shield to find him? So yeah, here's chapter one of that idea._**

 ** _Please note that I resurrected several charters from the dead and/or from hiding, because I don't accept the second half of season 3 of aos, sorry not sorry! :-P_**

 ** _Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this!_**

oOo

Director Coulson sighed and lay down his pen. HYDRA was officially dead, the organisation disbanded and leaders imprisoned. He had just spent the last couple of hours signing off all the paperwork. This was the one part of his job he could never look forward to, only look forward to its end.

But at last he was finished. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, realising he could actually afford to have some time off. He decided he would go to the Smithsonian, he hadn't seen the Captain America exhibition and it was the first item on his "bucket list" that Skye made him start a few years ago. Bringing the list out, he noticed that was the only item on his list anyway. He decided he would take Skye with him. She deserved a break after everything that had happened.

In the drawer that he had kept the list, he noticed something he hadn't looked at in a long time. His Captain America trading cards. He hadn't the heart to look at them for long since Fury had ruined them after he died. He knew it was for a good reason, but he had spent _years_ collecting those cards, and now they were covered in blood. And after all this time, he'd still never found out _whose_ blood it was.

He flicked through the pile of cards, stopping at the only one with all of the Howling Commandos on it. Thankfully, not too much damage had been done to that one. He looked at the card for a long while, and his curiosity got the better of him. He looked up each of the men, one by one, and true enough, Captain America was the last survivor. He stared at Bucky Barnes's profile.

 _No body was ever found, though it is believed Sergeant Barnes died from falling off a freight train carrying known HYDRA operatives, somewhere in the Swiss Alps._

He read through the rest of the information.

 _He endured weeks of isolation, torture and_ _ **experimentation**_ _._

He clicked the _further information_ link.

 _Sergeant Barnes was exposed to an improved resistance serum, not unlike the serum that was exposed to Captain America, with similar results, which explain how Sergeant Barnes was able to keep up with Captain America for longer than any other of the Howling Commandos, though many believe it was their enduring friendship from childhood that made them the ideal fighting partners._

Coulson took a few deep breaths. No body was ever found, but he had the super serum and he had fallen to his death into Artic-like conditions. He had been present when they were defrosted Captain America. He knew all the procedures. It was perfectly plausible that Sergeant Barnes was _still alive_. Cap had survived for _nearly seventy years_ , Bucky could still be there.

Coulson delved deeper. He found the location that Bucky had fallen within a one mile radius. He brought up several drones and had sent the order to scan the scene. He had just reconstructed a full body model so the drones had something to compare whatever they found to, using 40s files when May entered.

"Director, the other agents are organising some sort of celebration in the wake of Hydra's downfall. I need an excuse to get out of it- what have you done now?" she cut herself off with exasperation when she saw the expression on his face. "We've just gotten rid of HYDRA Coulson, please tell me you haven't got us stuck in another mess."

"You should go to the party, May," Coulson ignored the latter statement. "It would be good for you, it would be good for all of them."

 _"_ _Coulson."_

Coulson sighed. "I have a theory, May."

May sat down on the chair opposite Coulson's desk. "And?"

A beep sounded throughout the office. Coulson tapped a button and Maria Hill's annoyed expression met him on the screen. "Director."

"Agent Hill. How may I help?"

"Why did I get notified of two SHIELD drones surveying the Swiss Alps?"

"Ah. I didn't think they would work fast."

 _"_ _Coulson."_

Coulson held his hands up in defeat. "Okay, okay. I can explain."

As briefly as he could he explained his theory. Both Maria and May's eyes rolled simultaneously.

"You know that's a long shot, Phil."

"The Avengers think that you're dead, Phil! And what if you get Cap's hopes up and you're wrong?"

"I know it's a long shot and I know they don't know I'm alive, but at least we can say that we _tried_. We don't have to tell them what we're doing, my team can handle it."

"Coulson, they're all excited about HYDRA's downfall still. They've all booked time off!"

"Then I'll go myself. Me and whoever else that can. We still have some of the agents that were here when Cap came out of the ice. They know the procedures, and they can teach them to the agents that will make up this team."

Maria drummed her fingers on the table at her end impatiently. May sat in silence with her arms folded. Coulson kept one eye on them and another on the drones. It was silent for a few minutes, before another beep sounded.

Coulson brought up the results on the screen alongside Maria. "You seeing this, Hill?"

"Seeing, still working on believing," came the reply.

The drones showed a 95% match to the model Coulson had constructed.

"He's missing an arm," May pointed out.

"Well he did fall, like, about 100 feet-"

"I can't believe this," Maria said again.

Coulson smirked and glanced at May. "A long shot, huh?"

May gave him a look.

"Get them all together," Coulson asked her, all business now, "It's time we put a team together."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hello lads!**_

 _ **Cheers to everyone that followed, favourited and left reviews, I hope this story won't disappoint! :-)**_

 _ **This chapter is one of the longest I've evr written, and that is mostly due to the fact that I got most of the procedure of Captain America's defrosting off tumblr, I can't remember the URLs of the people that posted these extremely helpful posts, but if I find them I'll post them at the start of the next chapter!**_

 _ **Hope ye enjoy!**_

"Thank you all for coming together so quickly," Coulson said as he strode in, Bucky's file in his hand, "I know you are all still excited about HYDRA's defeat."

A round of applause followed Coulson's words. Coulson held his hands up for silence. "Yes, and congratulations to all, but I have another mission."

Mutterings started up at that. Coulson held his hands up again. "Not everyone will be needed for this, I'll only need a team of eight or nine, but I'll need a variety of skills, and that's why you are all here."

"Anyone who was involved in Operation CAP, raise your hand."

A single hand punched the air at the back.

"Yes, Agent Lewis?" Coulson said in surprise. Agent Cecelia Lewis was one of their youngest agents, he knew for a fact she hadn't been recruited until a year after Rogers was found.

"Sir, the only agents that were involved in Operation CAP that are still with the agency are my sister Agent Amanda Lewis, along with Agents O'Brien and Downey, and they are both deep undercover looking for human traffickers," Cecelia Lewis said.

"What about your sister, Cecelia?"

"She's in witness protection for the next five years," she supplied softly but readily. "However, she familiarised me with the machinery used and procedures followed, and I still have her 40s uniform from when Captain Rogers first woke up."

"Excellent. Lewis, you're on the team."

"Sir, what's all this about?" Simmons interrupted.

"We think we may have found a solider from World War II that was exposed to the same serum that Captain Rogers was exposed to. There is a chance that he is still alive, so we need experienced agents on this team," Coulson briefly explained. He pretended not to notice Agent Lewis bite her lip. Instead he looked to Fitz and Simmons, who were standing next to each other. "I'll need a biochemist and a mechanical engineer." They both nodded and moved to stand next to Agent Lewis, who was still staring at the floor. Jemma squeezed her shoulder in comfort and smiled at her.

Coulson also picked Bobbi, Hunter, Skye and Lincoln. "The rest of you are free to go," he announced to the other agents assembled. "Thank you for all your hard work."

The crowd quickly dispersed until it was only the team were left, standing in a small group. Fitzsimmons stared talking to Agent Lewis about the mission, as she had just fetched the _Operation CAP_ file from the filing room and was studying it hard. They both knew her well, seeing as she was one of the few assistants in the lab that could keep up with most of what they did and even more of what they said, so naturally they both knew that it was her first field mission, and she had been thrown straight into the deep end, being put smack bang in the middle of Coulson's famous team.

"Let's get loaded up," Coulson called and they all moved to get the machinery that they would need if they found Barnes alive. They loaded everything onto the newly refurbished Bus, strapped themselves in, and the plane took off. Coulson waited until May had the plane on cruise control and she met them in the meeting room.

"This is the man we'll hopefully find alive," Coulson said, putting the video of Bucky with Captain America on the holographic table. It was the video he had found from the Smithsonian, with the two of them smiling and laughing as the camera filmed them. "His name is-"

"That's Bucky Barnes!" Lewis blurted out. The team all turned to look at her. "Sorry sir," she apologised immediately.

"That's alright, Lewis. Have you heard of Barnes before?" Coulson questioned.

Agent Lewis nodded nervously, already cursing herself for interrupting the director. "Yes sir, when Mandy- when my sister was assigned to Operation CAP she had to research Captain America and find out all she could, and Sergeant Barnes came up an awful lot. They were best friends," she addressed the rest of the team, many of whom hadn't ever heard of Bucky before, "and he fell off a freight car to his presumed death somewhere in the Swiss Alps while trying to recover Dr. Zola of HYDRA along with the rest of the Howling Commandos, in late 1944, if I'm not mistaken, sir."

Coulson was impressed. "You _have_ done your homework. Well done Lewis."

Agent Lewis looked at the ground, trying to hide her proud smile and the blush that was creeping across her cheeks.

"Lewis is correct, he fell to his presumed death, but a body was never recovered. Until now." He brought up the scans that the drones had captured. "The drones I sent out seem to show him being under about six feet of snow," Fitz and Simmons both shuddered simultaneously, "and landing the plane isn't going to be easy either. But, once we find him, and if he is alive, there are a few procedures that we will all have to be familiar with so Barnes is defrosted as painlessly and as harmlessly as possible. Agent Lewis," he gestured to her, "is familiar with these procedures." He motioned for her to stand where he was, at the head of the table, to address the team. She took a deep breath as she took several photos and documents out of the file, and laid them over the table.

"To thaw a 1.5 metric ton colossal squid frozen in a block of ice," she began, "scientists put it in a big vat of brine just above 0 Celsius. This allows the fresh water to melt while still keeping the squid as cold as possible, which is essential, since for a giant corpse with tentacles, certain parts are bound to thaw days before others and could become quite rotten before the rest comes out of the ice block.

"However, Bu-Sergeant Barnes, hopefully, while still be alive, which complicates things. On the other hand, he's considerably smaller that a colossal squid, so this helps thaw logistics somewhat.

"Much like the squid, Sergeant Barnes will have to be kept at a consistent temperature throughout his body in order to be thawed successfully. If his extremities were to thaw more than a minute or two before his heart and lungs were thawed and reactivated, the tissue wouldn't have any oxygen and would quickly die. Brain tissue becoming metabolically active before the cardiovascular system began functioning would be even more disastrous-possible permanent brain damage."

At this stage several members of the team were looking at her, impressed, while Jemma beamed proudly at her.

"To keep his temperature as equal as possible across his entire body, something like the squid brine, or, in this case, an antifreeze solution is used. We immerse Bucky-Sergeant Barnes in the solution until his entire body is within a degree or two of thawing to begin Phase II.

"At the thawing point, it's important to consider life support functions. I don't know how fast human tissue uses up oxygen at refrigerator-range temperatures, but trust me, the sooner you have oxygen circulating the better. A heart-lung machine is needed to oxygenate and move the blood around for a while before the heart gets started back up.

"As you all no doubt remember, Cap regained consciousness in a 1940's style recovery room, and not during the thaw process. If he had, it would no doubt have been traumatic for him and disastrous for us, so he was put in a drug induced coma. Due to the fact that Cap's metabolism is four times faster than the average man, we can presume Bucky's will be that as well, so the amount of sedatative needed has to be quadrupled.

"So at this point," she pointed to each of the photographs in turn, "we have a giant bathtub of antifreeze solution, a heart-lung machine, oxygen canisters, and lots of drugs. After thawing the antifreeze bath is replaced with gradually warming water in order to bring Barnes back up to normal body temperature. Forced warm air blowers, like giant hairdryers, will be needed once Barnes is fully thawed; his organ systems are reactivated and he is brought back to normal body temperature. At this point it will be necessary to dry and style Barnes and put him in period appropriate clothing to wake up in a vintage hospital room.

"When we got to this stage with Captain Rogers, Director Fury himself oversaw the proceedings, and inputted certain," she paused, "...mistakes, shall we say. For example, there was a radio on in the room where Cap woke up, broadcasting a baseball game from 1941 that Director Fury knew for a fact Cap had been at, to see if Cap was as observant the files said. I think we should use 'mistakes' similar to these so we will be able to establish early on how damaged Barnes' brain is from the cold. Captain Rogers was lucky, his damage was so minimal it was nonexistent, and best case scenario Barnes will be in that condition too.

"Since my sister was the one who went into to him once he woke up, her uniform also had certain details slightly off, like her hair wasn't pinned back like it should be in a military hospital at that time, and her hair was in a perm, not the elaborate curls from the forties. Her tie was wide enough and long enough to be a man's, and she wore a ill-fitting, foam cup bra which shows up against the silk of the shirt, and women working at that time would not have been caught dead with such, ah," she paused for a second, " _misbehaving_ lingerie back then."

She noticed the director hiding a smile as several of the male members of the team were going rather pink in the face. "Sorry," she apologised, "but that's it, really. Questions?"

She met the disbelieving stares of the majority of the team with a sheepish grin.

"All of this only applies if we find him, of course, and really it's just a lot of monitoring and timing and stuff, so um, yeah, that's it, basically."

"Thank you, Agent Lewis," Director Coulson said, as she went back to stand next to Simmons, "that was very... informative."

"We've trained you well," Jemma beamed as Coulson dismissed the team.

"Ahh, so it's _your_ fault that the only parts of that anyone else understood were the 'the's and the 'a's ," Cecy remarked with a smile.

"Glad you're catching on," Fitz winked at her as the three of them left the room to prepare the machines, in the hope that they would find the person they were invented to help.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Hello all!**_

 _ **This is only a super fast extremely short chapter, sorry about that!**_

 _ **Thanks for the follows and everything, and I'm going to leave y'all guessing about the pairings, since Bucky was a bit of a ladies man before the war I was going to have a bit of fun with him when he wakes up! :-P**_

 _ **Enjoy! ;-)**_

Cecy hurried out of the helicarrier with a sack of tools slung over her shoulder, two flasks of hot chocolate and four of Fitz's freshly defrosted drones hovering behind her. She cautiously approached the deep pit that had been dug over the course of several hours and peered in. "Agent Morse?"

An exhausted Bobbi looked up at the sound of her name. The drones hovered down into the pit and began scanning the area, even though they would only last four minutes in the freezing temperatures before they froze and Fitz would have to defrost them again.

"Thanks kid." Bobbi put down her shovel and gratefully accepted the flask held out to her.

"No problem," Cecy replied. "By the way, Hunter has been abducted by Simmons, so they sent me out to help you, and to send you inside in half an hour." She threw her sack into the pit and jumped in, landing lightly on her feet.

Bobbi raised an eyebrow, impressed. "You've got good balance for a lab rat, kid."

"Cheers," Cecy grinned at her, her cheeks flushed at such praise from the famous Mockingbird. "But I wouldn't say that nickname in front of Fitz or Simmons, they'd try to kill you."

Bobbi shuddered. "Don't worry, I have absolutely no intention of provoking the wrath of Jemma Simmons."

"That's very wise, Agent Morse," Cecy nodded solemnly, before a grin cracked across her face again and she picked up a shovel, then went to consult one of the drones.

"Call me Bobbi, please," Bobbi held out her hand before she got to the drone. "We were never formally introduced, but I've heard of you."

"You have?" Cecy croaked disbelieving as they shook hands.

"Of course, Fitzsimmons don't shut up about you. You're the only one that can keep up, apparently, and that's a fact they have never hidden from the rest of the team."

"Really?!"

"True as I'm standing here," Bobbi smiled as she saw the look of awe flash across the younger agent's face. "Thanks for the hot chocolate, kid."

"No problem, Age- Bobbi."

Bobbi grinned at the slip up, then braced herself.

"I knew your sister too."

Bobbi watched Cecy's face carefully as a shadow seemed to fall across it. "I liked her, she was a good agent."

Cecy nodded and smiled sadly. "She was," she agreed as she went and checked the drone from earlier as it beeped indignantly at her. At the same time, Bobbi gave a shout.

"What is it?" Cecy hurried over to where Bobbi was kneeling on the ground. Bobbi opened her palm. Resting in her gloved hand was what looked like half of a dog tag with a broken chain hanging off it.

"S-E-R-G-E" Bobbi spelled out with her brow furrowed in concentration. "And B-U-C-H-A-N. The rest is cut off." They both whipped around as the other three drones began to beep along with the first one, so the two agents hurried to look at them, before frantically digging with their hands until they hit what the drones had found. Cecy muffled a shriek of joy as Bobbi tapped her earpiece. "Sir," she said, unable to conceal her smile as Cecy punched the air, reminding her acutely of a younger, more curious Jemma Simmons, if that were possible, "I think we've found him."


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hi guys!**_

 _ **Sorry I haven't updated in AGES, school has been bananas but hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly!**_

 _ **Thanks to all that have followed and favourited and left reviews, you guys are the best!**_

 _ **Here's an extra long chapter to make up for me not updating (sorry again!)**_

 _ **Hope y'all enjoy!**_

Bobbi, Hunter, Skye and Lincoln watched anxiously from outside the lab doors as Fitz, Simmons and Cecelia hurried around the defrosting remains of Sergeant James Barnes, who had already within a minute or two of reaching thawing point. Unlike Captain America, who was found lying down, Barnes was curled up in a ball, which was making it difficult for Simmons to insert the heart-lung machine correctly, especially since he was immersed in the antifreeze solution.

"Why did Simmons have to choose THEN to decide I was looking too cold?" Hunter grumbled under his breath for the umpteenth time. "Why couldn't she have let me go back out?"

Bobbi rolled her eyes at him. "You wouldn't have stuck it out for much longer, Hunter, your nose was turning blue."

"Reckon I'm in better shape than him though," Hunter retorted, as they watched from the other side of the glass.

"Are they even sure he's alive?" Lincoln cut in. "What if all of this was for nothing?"

"Fitz found a pulse." All of them but Bobbi jumped as the Director's icy tone sounded from behind them, "And even if it was just his body in a coffin we brought back, at least we'd be giving someone peace of mind."

An uneasy silence followed, eventually punctured by Fitz, who opened the lab doors from them. "He's stable, for now anyway," Fitz informed them as they entered the lab. Cecelia was monitoring several screens at once, relaying the information to Simmons at a speed only they could understand. Simmons had her hand on the button that would start up the heart-lung machine that needed to be activated the millisecond that Bucky reached thawing point.

"Thirty seconds, Jemma," Cecy warned at a speed understandable to the regular human ear, not taking her eyes off the screens.

Nobody made a noise as they watched the seconds tick down on the biggest screen. You could have cut the air with a blunt knife.

"And three... two... one... NOW!" Cecy shouted as Jemma slammed down the button.

Nobody moved for a second, all eyes were on Bucky. Then Jemma breathed a sigh of relief as she saw his chest rise and fall, only slightly, but it happened all the same. Cecy slumped against the table behind her with her head in her hands, and laughed with relief.

"Now the fun really starts," she said, as she turned her exhausted eyes on the rest of the team.

"What now, Cecy?" Jemma asked.

"After another minute or two we will have to replace the antifreeze with gradually warming saline water to get him up to normal body temperature." Cecy recited with her head in her hands again, "and although he won't be fully thawed before we reach the base, we had better start pumping the drugs into him once the saline water has been added." She rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"How are we going to do that?" Skye asked.

"Luckily enough the antifreeze and the saline water are immiscible," Fitz spoke up, his arms folded and his eyes on Bucky. "So we drain the antifreeze out at the bottom while adding the saline water at the top."

"Exactly," Cecy agreed. "And once the antifreeze is drained out, we can start pumping the drugs into him so he can be put in the coma as early as possible."

"And by that time," Simmons pipped up, "we should be back at base and we can dry him off properly once he reaches normal body temperature, and start construction of the 1940s style hospital room."

Cecy glanced up at the clock and clapped her hands together. "You four," she pointed to Bobbi, Hunter, Skye and Lincoln, "grab some buckets and start filling them with this stuff." She indicated the gigantic tub next to her, "Fitz-"

Fitz knelt down next to the tank and started to secure the pipe that would drain out the antifreeze into a different container.

"Excellent. Jemma -"

She put her hands on the wheel that would drain the antifreeze out once she gave the signal.

"Perfect." Cecelia grabbed a dropper filled with a green liquid from the table and squirted it into the tank.

"What's that for?" Skye asked.

"The antifreeze and the saline water are the same colour, so this will dye the antifreeze so we know when to stop draining it out. Everyone ready?"

All six nodded in unison. "And... now!"

It was like clockwork. Cecy could see why the team was as well known all around the base as it was. She was used to Fitzsimmons being in sync, a lot of the time she was on their wavelength anyway, but to see for her own eyes how they worked as a family, as a team, was something she still couldn't believe she was seeing with her own eyes.

"Like pieces solving a puzzle," she muttered to herself, but she pushed the thoughts of her sister and that rat bastard out of her head as she saw the director approach her, so she kept her eyes on the level of the green water, which was reaching the halfway point.

"You're doing very well for your first mission, Agent Lewis," Coulson said while also keeping his eyes on the tank.

"I'm only doing what I was trained to do, sir," she replied, a bit more sharply than she intended. "Sorry," she added hastily as she rubbed her eyes again.

"The hours of a field agent are quite different to the hours of a scientist, Agent Lewis," Coulon replied kindly, "Like I said, you are holding up extremely well."

"Thank you, sir."

"Cecy," Fitz called, not taking his eyes off the pipe.

"Excuse me sir," Cecy quickly moved away from the director and knelt down next to Fitz. The green antifreeze only lined the bottom of the tank. Skye tipped in the contents of her bucket and Fitz turned off the pipe as the last of the green got sucked up the tube.

"Well done everybody," Cecy congratulated, as she moved to get the syringes. Though she was tired, her brain was alert and her nimble fingers quickly filled three syringes full of three different coloured liquids. She moved over to the tank where Barnes was half suspended in the water. Though it was a little eerie, seeing a one armed man half floating in a tank of cold water, there was a strange beauty to it also. As Cecy pulled on her temperature resistant gloves, she studied his face, and how strangely peaceful it was, despite the fact that he must have been in terrible pain before he passed out. His hair, though short, floated around him, still swishing around after the current that remained from the antifreeze being drained out, so his face swished in and out of sight.

The snap of her gloves pulled her out of her thoughts, so she gave her head a small shake as she readied the syringe. With her other hand she reached into the water, wrapped her fingers around his stiff, unyielding remaining arm and luckily enough, his veins were prominent enough for her to feel underneath the thin gloves.

Keeping one hand around his arm, she caught the first syringe and pushed the plunger down as the first sedative entered his bloodstream. She inserted the contents of the other two syringes into two different points in his arm above the first.

"That should keep him going for an hour or so," she told Simmons, who recorded the information in one of the electronic notepads, "We can hook him up to the drip once we land." Simmons nodded in agreement, before narrowing her eyes at Cecy, who had just tried to unsuccessfully stifle a yawn.

"Bed, Cecy," she said in a hard tone.

"I'm fine, Jem," Cecy resisted the urge to rub her eyes again. "I was just going to get some coffee, do you want some?"

Jemma glared at her so intensely that Cecy found herself back pedalling at full speed. "Fine! I'm going, I'm going. Just give him three more sedatives in another hour Je-"

"OUT."Jemma pointed to the door, and Cecy reluctantly trudged towards it. As she got to the threshold, she turned around to say something but one hard glare from Jemma sent her spinning out of the room again, where she feel, grudgingly gratefully, into her soft, warm bunk.

 _ **Hope you enjoyed!**_

 _ **PS. In the next chapter Bucky will be awakE!**_

 _ **PPS. Reviews speed up the updates by the way! :-P**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Hello all!**_

 _ **Firstly, can I just say an almighty THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone that reviewed! I couldn't get over it that people actually did bother to review! XD I wouldn't have updated have as soon only for them, so thanks so much for all the support!**_

 _ **Secondly, I'm hoping to have the next chapter up maybe by Halloween, because I'll have mid term exams with school and stuff so I'm sorry, I'll update when I can (it will be soon though!)**_

 _ **Finally, because school was so full on and everything (not that I'm making excuses or anything) but this chapter isn't the best so I'm really sorry about that! I'm hoping the next one will be better!**_

 _ **Right, thanks for reading this, and thanks for all the support, it means an awful lots guys!**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

Cecy impatiently pushed a fresh curl out of her face and pinned it back into place. She looked into the mirror and straightened her tie. "I am the boss, I am the boss, I am the boss," she repeated furiously to herself, as she desperately tried to ignore the squirming sensation that had taken up residence in her stomach over the last few days, and was making its presence more and more known with each passing moment. The events of the last few days went around and around in her head like a blur, with only certain moments standing out. Most prominently, seeing Bucky's face from behind the glass as they laid him out on the bed to sleep off the sedatives. It bothered her conscience more that she thought it would; because once he woke up she didn't know would he ever be that peaceful again for a long time.

That was presuming, over course, that his brain hadn't suffered any damage from the ice.

She took deep steadying breaths and went over and over the information she had memorised. His place of birth, his family, his friends; both soldiers and civilians, his hobbies, what jobs he had, his past addresses, where he was stationed during the war... every aspect of his life that was documented, she had memorised. She just hoped she would be able to remember these things if he started to get violent. _Don't think about that,_ she said to herself, _that's what the panic buttons is for. If it worked for Mandy it will work for you._ Slightly reassured by the thought of her sister, she exhaled slowly as she took a final look in the mirror when there was a familiar knock on the door.

"Come in," Cecy called. She knew who it was anyway.

Jemma slipped into the room. "The monitors show Barnes as approximately ten minutes away from regaining consciousness," she informed her. Cecy found she couldn't speak so she merely nodded, and swallowed hard.

Jemma put her hands on Cecy's shoulders. "You'll be fine," she assured her, "there's no one that could do it better."

Cecy could only nod in response; she seemed to have lost her voice.

Jemma hugged her tightly. "It'll be okay," she reassured her again. "If anything happens, we'll be right outside." She hugged her for another few moments, then let go. "Come on, we'd better go."

An eerie calmness stole over Cecy at that moment as they left Cecy's room and made their way through the maze of hallways to get to the hospital style room that Bucky was being held in. Cecy held her head high as she walked next to Jemma, choosing to ignore the obvious stares and mutterings of good luck from the other agents, but suddenly wishing that she had gotten changed in the locker room off the holding rooms, which was a lot closer to the phoney hospital. Her 1940's military uniform made her stick out like a sore thumb among the other agents that were either dressed in all in black, or with white lab coats or blue scrubs.

Bucky's fake hospital room was not like Captain America's. They obviously couldn't let him break out and see for himself that he was in the 21st century like Steve did, so the design was a little different. The room was more like a turn table, and the plan was the once Bucky was gone past the panic stage, they would show him the rest of headquarters instead of him breaking out and wreaking the place. Hunter did point out that he only had the one arm, but Coulson warned all of them not to underestimate the strength of a super solider. The rest of the team would be watching Cecy and Bucky from behind two sets of one way mirrors, and would be able to hear everything through Cecy's earpiece.

Jemma and Cecy entered the room where the rest of the team would see all the action. They were all there already, of course. Bobbi and Skye were monitoring screens, Fitz was fiddling with Cecy's earpiece and the rest were huddled in groups talking, or watching Bucky through the window. Once Fitz saw her he gave her an encouraging smile, before handing her the earpiece and the buzzer with the panic button and giving her a tight hug. Everyone else stopped talking. Jemma took Bobbi's place watching the screens as Bobbi gave her a quick hug too. "You look just like Mandy, honey," she whispered in her ear. Cecy grinned, "Thanks Bob," she replied.

Coulson came over and shook her hand. "Best of luck, Lewis."

"Thanks sir," Cecy smiled nervously.

"Get ready to go in, Cecy," Jemma called. "He's waking up."

Cecy took a deep breath, put her earpiece in and went out of the viewing room. She walked down the corridor and waited outside the door. She was suddenly acutely aware of a pulsing in her ears, and hoped that she would be able to hear Fitz through it. She took quiet, deep breaths and listened hard on the other side of the door. She could hear the baseball game playing on the radio, the same one that had been playing for Captain America. According to SHIELD files, that game was the last one that both the Captain and the Sergeant attended, before the latter was sent to England.

"He's after sitting up and he's looking at the radio," Fitz informed her through the comms. "Now's the time, Cecy. Good luck."

Cecy swallowed hard and opened the door. Bucky was indeed sitting up, on the edge on the bed. His right hand was gripping the sheet on the bed in a tight fist, and he looked a bit unbalanced, like he was still adjusting to the fact that he no longer had his left arm. He looked up when she entered the room, and Cecy felt her heart break just a little. She only caught a glimpse of a frightened and vulnerable expression before he masked his emotions quickly. So he had put two and two together.

"Good morning." Cecy was surprised at how calm her voice sounded, "Or should I say, afternoon," she added, as she glanced at her watch.

"Where am I?" Bucky didn't look at her as he spoke, he looked straight ahead of him.

"You're in a recovery room, in-" Cecy faltered. If she lied now, he wouldn't trust her. So she told the truth. "In Alaska."

She heard a buzzing in her ears, which was Fitz muttering, giving out to her, but she ignored it.

"Alaska?" Bucky was momentarily thrown. "How-" He stopped himself as the radio cheered, and looked up at her with both hardness and pain in his eyes. "The game. It's from May 1941, I know because I was there. It was the last one I went to before-" he closed his eyes and stopped himself from talking. Cecy waited for him to break the silence, but he didn't.

Cecy felt her heart fill with pity. At least she had chosen this life, but from her research she knew that Bucky hadn't, he had been drafted. "I'm sorry, Bucky- I mean, Sergeant," she quickly corrected herself, but it wasn't quick enough.

"How do you know me?" He stood up angrily and faced her. Cecy had to crane her neck slightly to see his face, he was so tall. "Who are you? Where am I?"

 _Don't panic,_ Cecy thought in her head. _You can do this._

"Sergeant Barnes," she spoke clearly and calmly, as she held her hands up, "I will tell you everything you want to know, but I would advise you to sit down first."

"Why?"

"Come on," Cecy sat down on the bed, and gestured for Bucky do the same, which he grudgingly did. "We thought it would be best to put you in familiar surroundings, we didn't want you to be distressed waking up, I'm sorry if we failed on that front," she explained to him, even though the fact that he realised that something was up was definitely a very good sign. Bucky looked at her, confused and still slightly angry, so she tried a different approach.

"Sergeant, what is the last thing you remember before you woke up here?"

The comms were completely silent, none of the team dared to make contact with her when she was in such close proximity to Bucky in case he could hear them too.

"Why do you want to know?"" Bucky was more confused than angry now. "Where am I, really?" He pleaded.

"Answer my question and I promise I will answer yours," Cecy promised him.

Bucky looked at her for a long hard moment, as if he was sizing her up, and Cecy stared right back at him, so he sighed.

"The last thing... we were fighting a HYDRA guy in a massive suit with weird weapons that had beams coming out of them, like the ones in the prison camp, but bigger," Bucky seemed to forget he was talking to her, and more like he was talking to himself, he was staring straight ahead again. "I used Steve's shield to protect myself as I was shooting at him, we shot him down but one of the beams hit off the shield, it threw me backwards out of the train. I hung on to the side but it wouldn't take my weight. Steve tried to get to me, but he couldn't." Bucky swallowed hard and got himself together before continuing, "I remember falling down, then I must have hit my head or something because after that all I remember was pain and this... coldness," he shuddered accordingly and put his head in his hands.

Cecy didn't know what made her do it, but she hesitantly reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she apologised again, though it was more for what she was about to tell him than from what he had said.

"You want to know where you are, Sergeant. You are in Alaska, but this room doesn't really look like this. Like I said, we wanted to put you in more familiar surroundings before we told you."

"Before you told me what?" Bucky asked, taking his head out of his hands and looking at her warily.

Cecy removed her hand from his shoulder and slipped the buzzer out of her pocket. "This is going to show you what the room really looks like. Are you ready?"

Bucky nodded, a look of disbelief creeping into his features as he looked at the tiny object with amazement.

Cecy pressed the reveal button, and the room transformed. The old fashioned dressers were swapped around, replaced with more modern shelving. The hard wooden chair in the corner was replaced by a fancier plush chair with back support and all. The wooden lockers at the side of the bed, the fan on the ceiling, the radiators on the walls, even the wall colour itself, were all changed and updated to more modern equipment. Bucky's mouth fell open in amazement, and Cecy looked at him sadly.

"Sergeant Barnes, you are in the international headquarters of SHIELD; the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division, formed after World War 2 by Chester Phillips, Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, as a successor to the SSR."

"Wait, the war is over? How long was I out for?"

"Today's date is the 11th of March, 2016," Cecy told him sadly. "You've been asleep, Bucky, for over seventy years. I'm so, so, so sorry."

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	6. Chapter 6

_**Sorry this is late going up, school has been bonkers!**_

 _ **Hope ye all had a lovely Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) and if you don't celebrate it at all, I hope you had a nice day on December 25th! :)**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

Bucky looked at her blankly. "I don't understand."

Cecy bit her lower lip. Coulson had warned her that this might happen.

"When you fell," she explained, "you were knocked out practically straight away, correct?"

Bucky looked down at his hands. After a few seconds hesitation, he agreed with her. "Right."

Cecy stayed silent until he turned to look at her. "Sergeant Barnes, if you can remember anything else, we need to know."

"Well I... I did hit my head off something when I fell," he protested, "but I can remember waking up on the snow, it was freezing cold, and I could barely see anything. I looked down, and I could see that my arm was gone, and the snow all around it had gone red. I tried to drag myself over to one of the rocks so I could try to stop the bleeding. I think I managed to wrap my arm in something, and then I heard voices."

"Voices?"

"Yeah. As much I could understand, they were either German or Russian. I didn't think it would be smart to have been found by either of them so I started digging. I dug down deep enough with my arm that I could climb into the hole and have snow covering me, and I sorta curled myself into a ball and- I fell asleep," he finished, as if surprised by how his story had ended. He looked at her with renewed realisation. "I've been asleep for seventy years?" he said in disbelief, "How is that even possible?"

Cecy had this answer prepared. "When you passed you, you went into what was really a glorified coma. You should have frozen to death; hell, the knock you got to the head should have paralysed you, or given you permanent brain damage. You shouldn't be upright, holding a conversation with me or recognising that your surroundings aren't right. But you are doing all of these things, became of the version of the super serum that runs through your veins. It has, instead of letting you die, preserved your physical and mental state almost perfectly. It is truly amazing," she finished, "that you are alive at all. But you are, all because of that-" she waved her hand, searching for a suitable word, "-stuff."

Bucky closed his eyes as he asked his next question, as if he was almost praying that she wouldn't answer it. "Is there anyone I know left alive?"

Cecy hesitated. "Honestly, not many," she answered truthfully. "Director Carter passed away two weeks ago, most of the Howling Commandos died before the turn of the century. Timothy Dugan is still alive though, he's in a nursing home in France. He'll be 100 in two months."

"At least there's someone," he said to himself. "When did-," Bucky stopped himself.

"When did what, Sarge?"

"Nothing." Bucky changed his mind. "I don't want to know."

"Sarge, as well, there is another person you might know of, in fact he's partially the reason we found you in the first place," Cecy said with a surpressed smile.

"Who?"

"Captain Rogers. He's alive and well, and we found him only a few years ago."

Bucky's eyes widened in pure disbelief. "Steve's alive? You found- what?"

"It's a very long story," Cecy told him, as she heard a buzzing in her ear, "But before I tell it to you, do you mind if I ask the Director and the doctors in? They are all anxious to meet you, and make sure that you're alright. Physically, at least," she added after a pause.

"Sure, go ahead, but can you tell me about Steve? Please?" he begged again and Cecy felt her heart break some more at the undisguised love and care in his voice when he spoke Steve's name.

Cecy nodded as she lightly tapped her ear. "Whenever you're ready, Director."

"Excellent work Lewis, well done," came the reply, as Bucky jumped a foot in the air beside her.

"What was that?!" He exclaimed with panic, momentarily forgetting about his long lost brother.

"It's my earpiece," Cecy explained patiently, "it's the newest model, meant to be impossible for anyone else to hear. But you heard it clearly?" she asked as she slipped it out of her ear and held it in the palm of her hand so Bucky could see it.

"Yeah, clear enough, I suppose," Bucky was looking at the tiny piece of metal with amazement.

"It lets me talk to people outside this room. Kind of like a radio," she said after a moment's hesitation, "but it's only heard by one person."

"Those would have been handy during the war," he observed.

"I'll bet they would've," Cecy said with a smile as she slipped her earpiece back in again. Bucky cracked a smile back at her as the door opened and Coulson, flanked by Fitzsimmons, entered the room.

Cecy immediately stood up out of respect for her superior officer, and Bucky mirrored her actions without hesitation.

"Sergeant Barnes," Coulson said as they shook hands, "it is an honour to meet you. I'm Director Phil Coulson, of SHIELD."

"So you're the guy in charge of all this?" Bucky asked.

"Indeed I am." Cecy suppressed a smile as Coulson desperately tried to conceal his inner fanboy.

"May I introduce Doctor Leopald Fitz and Doctor Jemma Simmons," Coulson indicated each of the agents in turn. "Jemma will be in charge of your physical health and well being and Fitz can construct a new arm for you, if you want it."

"A new arm, Mr Coulson? What do you mean?"

Coulson gave a small smile, unscrewed his left forearm and held it out for Bucky to examine. "Long story short, I lost my arm in the field and so Fitz made me a new one. It's so realistic no one else will know it's not real. It feels real too."

Bucky's jaw had hit the floor in amazement, and he looked at Cecy, then at Fitz. "You can make me a new arm?"

Fitz stepped forward. "Yes, however I just need to take a few measurements first-"

"Hang on, I need to check his vitals first!" Jemma protested, and Bucky turned to her in surprise. "Doctor Jemma Simmons, Sergeant," she gushed excitedly, and they shook hands.

"You're a doctor?" Bucky asked curiously, before turning to Cecy. "Women can be doctors now?"

Cecy braced herself for some fairly sexist comments. "Yes, they can."

Bucky turned back to Jemma. "About damn time too," he agreed, nodded at Jemma and then Cecy, before his eyes widened in shock. "Begging your pardons, ma'ams."

Jemma and Cecy shared a confused look. "For what exactly, Sarge?"

"I apologise for using that kind of language in front of ladies," he explained. "There is no excuse for it, and I apologise."

"No need, Sarge," Cecy patted his arm affectionately, "I'll leave you in Fitz and Simmons capable hands."

"You will come back though, won't you?" Bucky asked, suddenly anxious.

Cecy looked at Coulson for confirmation, and he nodded.

"Of course Sarge," she smiled at him, "I just have some things I need to do, and I'll come back to give you the grand tour."

At her confirmation of her return Bucky visibly relaxed, and let Fitzsimmons examine him thoroughly.

Coulson followed Cecy out and shut the door behind him.

"That was outstanding work Lewis, well done," he praised her warmly. "Your sister would have been very proud of you."

Cecy's eyes filled with unexpected tears at the shock mention of Mandy, and she turned her head away. "Thanks, sir," she said to the wall.

She felt Coulson squeeze her shoulder in comfort and walked on ahead of her. Wiping her eyes hastily, she followed him. She was giving the famous Bucky Barnes the grand tour, and she'd be damned if she was going to be a wuss crying over her sister. She could do that in her spare time. So she held her head up high, and followed Coulson to the briefing room.

 _ **thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed and favourited this story, hope ye enjoyed it!**_

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 _ **Ciao!**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Hello all!**_

 _ **Here is an extra long chapter because I probably wont update before mid term, but I'm hoping for Steve and Bucky's reunion to be in the next chapter or two!**_

 _ **Thanks for all the follows, favourites and reviews, its amazing, so thank you!**_

Cecy returned to Bucky's "holding room" a short time later, after she had changed out of her 1940s costume and was wearing her normal gear. She opened the door and Bucky immediately stood up. Fitz had also given him new clothes, and they fitted him very well.

"Hello again Sarge," Cecy smiled at him.

"Pleasure to see you again, ma'am," Bucky answered respectfully, though relieved that she had returned.

"Cecy," she immediately corrected him, "Call me Cecy."

"Cecy." He repeated the name after her. "I've never heard that name before."

"It's short for Cecelia," she explained.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Cecy." He held out his hand and she took it, meaning to shake it, but he turned her hand up and kissed the back of her hand.

Blushing furiously, and a little shocked, she pulled her hand away quickly once he let go. He looked at her, puzzled. "Is everything alright?" He watched her curiously.

"Yes," Cecy gave her head a small shake, and she could feel her cheeks returning to their normal colour. "Sorry, Sarge, I was just a little surprised, that's all."

"Bucky," he corrected her. "My friends call me Bucky."

Cecy grinned at him. "Well, Bucky, are you ready for the tour?"

"Yes," Bucky answered. Cecy opened the door. "Actually, I was just wondering, could you tell me about Steve now?"

Cecy clapped a hand to her forehead as she turned to him. "Crap, I completely forgot about that! Of course Sar- Bucky, though you might want to sit down, it's a long story."

As fast as she could she explained Captain America's actions after Bucky's death, and the events leading up to his discovery, including her sister's involvement. Bucky didn't look away from her once, though he shook his head in disbelief several times.

"I can't believe it," he said finally, when Cecy had finished. "That _idiot_."

Cecy smiled at his indignance and resignation to Steve's heroics. "He saved millions of lives when he crashed that plane."

"He couldn't have given Peggy the coordinates and jumped out the back? He was being melodramatic, as per damn usual. Sorry Cecy," he immediately apologised again.

"Don't worry about it," Cecy grinned, "I've heard a lot worse, believe me."

"People's attitudes are different now, aren't they?" he asked suddenly.

"In what way?"

"Well, it's great that women can be doctors and all, but does that mean that men curse in front of them and it's alright?"

"Well, nobody takes any notice, to be honest," Cecy admitted, "The world has gotten a lot weirder since you went in the ice, Bucky."

Quickly she explained Steve's role in the Avengers, along with the New York attacks, HYDRA's resurgence, Washington DC and the events of Sokovia.

"But HYDRA, we think, has finally been eradicated now, that's all SHIELD has been trying to do for the past few years, and nobody in the organisation has slept since then because of it," Cecy grinned again.

"So Steve is the head of the Avengers now?"

Cecy nodded. "Yes, and once you've been checked that you're okay physically and mentally we're going to take you to see him."

"Doctor Simmons has already checked me over, I'm fine," he said immediately.

Cecy smiled at his enthusiasm. "I know," she said gently, "but we need to get you up to speed on everything you've missed out on since 1944. We are going to have a giant history lesson later," she said , as she stood up and stretched. "But first, I'll show you around the base, that is if you want to?" she finished uncertainly.

"Sure," Bucky immediately agreed, standing up as soon as she did. He went to the door and held it open for her. "After you."

"Thanks," Cecy smiled at his manners again. He shut the door behind him and followed her down the hall and out to the surveillance room that the team had watched her first interactions with Bucky. It was empty now, as Bucky looked around the room in amazement.

"Is this how I was spied on?" he asked Cecy, "Doctor Simmons mentioned something about monitoring before she got a look from Doctor Fitz, and she stopped talking."

"Yeah, Jem does tend to talk a lot when she's excited, and Fitz gets jealous easy," Cecy admitted with a certain smile she had when she talked about her two best friends.

"Are they courting?" Bucky asked in surprise.

"Fitz wants to ask her out, yeah," Cecy said grinning.

Bucky grinned too. "Doctor Fitz, he gets jealous easy, does he?"

"Bucky," Cecy said warningly but couldn't keep the smile off her face either. "That isn't a good idea."

"I've been in the ice for seventy years," he replied mischievously, "I wanna have a bit of fun. Besides," he added as Cecy opened her mouth to object, "When guys feel threatened, they work faster."

"I like how you think," Cecy agreed. She had been trying to play matchmaker for months and nothing had come out of it. Maybe Bucky was the last push that was needed.

Cecy lead him through the maze of tunnels that was the SHIELD base. Bucky took it all in, trying to memorize every room, corridor and floor so that he could make his way around on his own eventually.

Cecy took him to the lab, where Fitzsimmons, Coulson, Bobbi and Skye were standing around the table, talking in serious voices. Bobbi saw them coming and immediately shut everyone else up before they came into hearing range. Cecy glanced at Bucky and saw a puzzled expression slide from his face as he looked down at her and grinned.

"Ready to have some fun?" he asked, grinning. Cecy just shook her head but she couldn't help smiling at his words.

"This is the main laboratory," Cecy said as they came into the lab. "You've met Coulson and Fitzsimmons already, and this is Agent Morse," she gestured at Bobbi and he kissed the back of her hand, "and Agent Skye." Bucky repeated his greeting as the girls shared an amazed look.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Bucky said formally.

"Likewise," Skye said, slightly flustered, while Bobbi inclined her head and smiled kindly.

"And Doctor Simmons," Bucky said, turning to her and smiling widely at her, "thank you for all your help earlier on, I feel much better now." He took her hand and again kissed the back of it, but this time he kept eye contact with her. Bobbi, Skye and Coulson all looked at Cecy in confusion. She winked and nodded towards Fitz, whose expression was one of comical indignance. Skye began to cough loudly as she tried to stifle her laughter. Bucky glanced at her and then winked at Jemma with his mischievous smile, and Jemma flushed.

"Sergeant Barnes, your arm is ready, if you'd like to try it on," Fitz interjected, once he was capable of coherent speech.

"Already?" Bucky exclaimed, turning to him, "Sure, thanks pal!"

Fitz led him out of the lab, but just before they left Bucky turned. "Doctor Simmons, would you like to accompany us?"

Jemma opened her mouth to answer but Coulson got in before her. "I'm afraid I need Jemma for something else, Sergeant Barnes," he addressed him with amusement.

Bucky nodded, threw one last smile at Jemma and left. Cecy thought she saw him give a half a wink in her direction too but she wasn't sure.

Jemma turned back to the table, her cheeks still stained pink. Skye finally cracked and burst out laughing. "Well?" Cecy asked her.

"He's very charming," Jemma said as the pink in her cheeks deepened again.

Skye and Bobbi nodded in agreement. "Very charming," Coulson agreed solemnly, and the girls laughed again. "Sorry Simmons," he added, "for denying you that opportunity, but I thought Fitz was going to explode at one point."

Jemma smiled. "Poor Fitz."

Coulson looked at Sky and Bobbi and the two of them nodded and followed him out of the room. Cecy swung herself up onto the worktop. "What was all that about, before we came in?"

"Nothing really," Jemma answered, suddenly deciding to tidy the desk behind her, so she had her back to Cecy. She pursed her lips but didn't push it. If it was something she needed to know, Jemma would tell her. Over her years at SHIELD Cecy had learned that sometimes ignorance was bliss.

"So, what do you think of Sergeant Barnes?" Cecy asked, winking at her.

Jemma smiled. "He's charming, and very sweet, but-"

"You prefer Brits," Cecy finished with a laugh.

Jemma gave her a glare but didn't contradict her.

oOo

"Right this way, Sergeant Barnes," Fitz lead him through into a small room and directed the Sergeant to sit on top of the work bench. He was still shocked by the soldier's interactions with Jemma _. It's not his fault,_ Fitz told himself firmly, _he's been frozen for seventy years; he's not her type anyway._ Still, he decided he had better get a move on. He didn't want to lose Jemma again.

He took Bucky's arm out of the box and held it against Bucky, with one eye closed and his tongue between his teeth in concentration. Bucky stared at his new arm with unconcealed amazement. "You made that in a few hours?"

"Two and a half," Fitz answered, rummaging around in a drawer for a screwdriver, "It's a new record."

"It looks swell, thanks a million pal."

"Can I ask you a question, sir?" Fitz asked suddenly.

"Bucky," he immediately corrected him, "Fire away, Doctor Fitz."

"What's your deal with Jemma anyway?"

Bucky grinned. "You're sweet on her."

"I-," Fitz stammered, "yeah, I guess I am."

"Then why haven't you gone for it yet? Cecy said that you've known her for years."

 _Cecy's let him call her Cecy?_ Fitz thought in surprise.

"Um, yeah, well, I- she," he took a breath. "We've been friends for ten years, and I don't want to ruin what we have, and I was- um, sick, a while back and she thought she was making it worse so she left and we've only just gotten back to where we were before-,"he sighed. "I just don't want to lose her again."

"Well pal, in my experience, you can't live regretting anything. Life's too short, especially in this line of work. Let her know how you feel, and if she doesn't feel the same way, you'll get through it. But you can't keep hiding what you feel, or someone like me will come and sweep her away," he winked at Fitz.

Fitz grinned and started attaching the plate to what was left of Bucky's arm. "That's some good advice Bucky."

"Happy to be of service. Say," Bucky asked suddenly, "What was it you were talking about before Cecy and I came in? Something about a ward and Cecy being upset if she found out?"

Fitz kept his eyes on the plate and didn't answer for a long time, but Bucky kept looking at him. "Fitz," he said, "What is it?"

Fitz looked at Bucky hard. "How much do you know about Cecy?"

"Not much," Bucky admitted, "I know she had a sister called Mandy and she was the person Steve first saw when he woke up, and that she's gone into witness protection. She likes people to call her Cecy instead of Cecelia, and she's crazy about you and Doctor Simmons."

Fitz gave a small smile at that, but it quickly vanished. "What I'm about to tell you, is something we've kept from Cecy because it would break her heart if she found out, and none of us could stand seeing her that upset."

"It can't be that bad-"

"If she found out about this," Fitz cut him off, "I don't think she'd ever be the same again."

Fitz sighed. "She told you her sister was in witness protection, she hasn't said why?"

Bucky shook his head.

"When we found out that HYDRA had been growing inside SHIELD, Mandy was very close to this guy called Grant Ward," Fitz explained, "We all thought he was our friend, but it turns out he was an undercover HYDRA agent. He nearly killed me and Jemma by d-dropping us to the bottom of the ocean in a metal b-b-box," Fitz cursed as his stammer returned. It only ever came back anymore when he talked about Ward. "We escaped, but my brain was deprived of oxygen for too long so I suffered temporary brain damage, I was in a coma for a f-f-few weeks and s-s-stuff. We tried to arrest him but we could never find him. We didn't think Mandy had been in on it, so she was put in witness protection when I was still in a coma.

"After about a year she disappeared, without a trace. We couldn't tell Cecy, but we tried to find a body or something to give her some bit of closure. Then we started seeing pictures of her and Ward together, and we knew then."

"Knew what?"

"That she was a HYDRA agent too," Fitz said sadly, "We think we've tracked her down but there's no side of Ward yet, so Skye and Bobbi and going to try to bring her in, and keep her hidden until we can find out what's going on," he explained as he attached the arm.

"You're going to have to tell her eventually."

Fitz kept his eyes on Bucky's arm. "I know." He met Bucky's gaze. "But it took me weeks to accept that Ward had betrayed us, and I don't want her having to go through that only ten times worse because it's her own flesh and blood." His eyes returned to the arm. "She's like a little sister to me, and any pain I can spare her, you can bet I'll do it," he said fiercely.

Bucky nodded. "I can understand that." It's what he had been doing for Steve for as long as he could remember.

"But you can't tell her anything," Fitz looked him dead in the eye, "not until we know for sure. Understand?"

Bucky nodded slowly.

"Good." Fitz visibly relaxed. "Now try flexing."

Bucky looked down and saw that his new arm had been attached. He clenched his fist and swung his arm up and down. "It feels real," he said, amazed.

"Ready for a history lesson?" Cecy appeared at the door and saw a two armed Bucky before her. "Good job on that arm, Fitz."

"Thanks Cecy," Fitz grinned and affectionately ruffling her hair. Cecy swatted at him.

"C'mon Bucky – _ahh Fitz!-_ before my hair is messed up for good," she squealed at Fitz, dodged him and waited on the other side of the door for Bucky.

"Thanks again, pal," Bucky earnestly shook Fitz's hand.

"No problem," Fitz said as he gave a nod.

Bucky mirrored him and turned to follow Cecy. Halfway down the hall, he turned and saw Fitz watching them go. He raised a hand in salute, and turned back towards Cecy with his mind confused and his heart heavy.

 _ **The ending is a bit crap, sorry, but hope you enjoyed other than that!**_

 _ **Please review (for longer chapters ;) )**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**As promised ;)**_

"So, the Avengers have spent the past five years thinking that Loki impaled me with his sceptre, and seeing as my death technically brought the Avengers together, Director Fury didn't see the need to inform them of my survival a few weeks later."

Coulson once again addressed his team on the bus, en route to the main Avengers headquarters in New York. May was flying the plane but she was listening in on the comms.

"Seeing as HYDRA has been eradicated, and the business in Sokovia has been cleared up, Agent Hill and I have decided that having the Avengers as our allies will be very beneficial to future missions. We are also using this opportunity to reunite Sergeant Barnes and Captain Rogers."

Bucky nodded as he met the director's gaze. Coulson was the only member of the team left that addressed Bucky as Sergeant Barnes. All the rest have succumbed to the habit of calling him by his nickname.

"Agent Hill will have the Avengers in the meeting room. All of you, except for Bucky and Cecy, will go in before me and Agent Hill will introduce you all. Then I will go in and explain HYDRA's downfall, amongst other things."

 _Like the fact that you're still among the living_ , Cecy added mentally. She gave a quick glance at Bucky. He had been very quiet since they had got on the bus, and over the past few days a certain look would come over his face and it would take Cecy several times calling his name before he would answer her. Worriedly, she had confided in Fitzsimmons, and Fitz had gone to talk to him. Since then, the look didn't pass across his face as often as before, but it still worried her. She didn't know if it was PTSD or just nostalgia for his old life, but she hoped that Captain America would be able to help him, seeing as they had gone through the same experiences.

Practically.

 _Weeks of isolation, torture and experimentation._

She shuddered and snapped her thoughts back to the present. Coulson was just finishing as he put his hand up to his ear.

"May says we'll be landing in five," Coulson relayed to the team. "So strap in."

 _And let the fun begin,_ Cecy added again.

oOo

"So you're telling us that SHIELD has been operating, not only without our knowledge, but that we've been going on missions based on information it obtained?" Thor asked incredulously.

"Where did you think the information was coming from?" Agent Hill said with mild exasperation.

"Maybe somewhere that HYDRA spies couldn't get at so easily," Steve said quietly.

Maria chose to ignore his remark. "Long story short, they've cut off all of HYDRA's heads under a new director, and we feel that the new SHIELD and the Avengers working together would be better than do things separately. So, I've invited some of the more central members in to meet you all."

Vision came in then, followed by May, Lincoln, Hunter, Fitz and Simmons.

Steve got up, stood next to Maria Hill and shook each of the agents' hands in turn and made small talk as Hill introduced them. When he got to Jemma he saw that her hands were shaking, and her lips were clamped together. "Dr Simmons," he asked kindly, "what exactly does a bio chemist do-"

"I'm sorry," she cut him off, "but you've met DIRECTOR PEGGY CARTER in the flesh. What was that like? I mean yes the super solider serum is one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century and all that but PEGGY CARTER," she stopped to take a breath.

"She was an amazing woman, that's for sure. You're British, Dr. Simmons?"

Jemma nodded. "I grew up about half an hour away from where she was born."

Steve smiled as this small scientist, bursting with questions about Peggy, cut him off every time he tried to find out what a biochemist was, until Hill interrupted them.

"Are you all ready to meet the new director?" Hill asked.

"The suspense is practically killing me, Hill," Tony whipped sarcastically. He had started talking to Fitz and was annoyed at being cut short the opportunity to find out more about his discoveries on artificial limbs.

Hill glanced to May, who went to the door, opened it and went out into the hall. "They're ready for you now, sir."

"Thanks, May," came Coulson's voice from outside the room. Natasha stiffened in her seat, as did Steve, who was half way back to his. Clint just shook his head but the rest, who had neither super hearing nor had been close to Coulson, took no notice.

But they took notice when he came into the room.

Natasha whipped a gun from somewhere and had it aimed straight for his heart, Clint loaded his bow and Thor grabbed his hammer, making the room shake and the lights flicker. "What dark magic is this?" he roared. "You perished at the hand of Loki, son of Coul!"

"Your brother wasn't the only one who had a few tricks up his sleeve," Coulson replied calmly. "I can explain everything."

"Was it Fury?" Banner asked. Out of all the Avengers except for Wanda, Sam and Rhodes, his immediate reaction hadn't been panic. Granted, he had a lot of practice suppressing panic, but he looked at Coulson calmly, with no worry in his eyes, only curiosity.

Coulson nodded and smiled. "Good to see you again, Dr. Banner."

"Same to you," he replied just as calmly, "Congratulations are in order, I believe, on your promotion."

Coulson opened his mouth to reply but Clint cut him off. "Never mind that, I'd like to know how he's still walking around when he _died_ before the battle of New York! And don't you dare say that you didn't," he said suddenly to Coulson. "I saw the body. So did Nat and Steve. You were in a _body bag,_ Coulson!"

"I did die," Coulson admitted. "I was dead a few weeks. However, Director Fury decided that I still had more to give to SHIELD, so he brought me back, and since the fall of HYDRA, myself and my team have salvaged what we could of SHIELD and tried to build it back up. That, and trying to get rid of HYDRA, of course."

"But how did he resurrect you, son of Coul?" Thor asked.

Coulson grimanced. "You're not going to like his methods," he said to the God of Thunder.

"Try him," Tony tested.

"Alien technology."

"Define alien technology," said Tony.

"Define alien," Bruce suggested.

"Do you remember the invasion of Frost Giants on Earth a couple centuries ago?"

Thor nodded, "Asgard drove them away."

"One of them was captured," Coulson said, "and through his DNA..."

Thor looked as though he was going to be sick, which was difficult, seeing as he was a God and he couldn't really get sick at all.

"I'm not going to into the details," Coulson said firmly. "Suffice to say it wasn't the most pleasant experience in the world, and any ill effects I may have been suffering from have been cured."

There was an outburst at that, but Coulson held up both hands for silence.

"We have three reasons for informing you of our existence, the first is that we wanting to inform you of the complete eradication of HYDRA-"

"You're sure you cut off all the heads?" Wilson spoke up.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place," Steve recited.

"Trust me, the entire body has been burned," Coulson said with determination, as he shared a glance with May.

Suddenly, Coulson caught sight of Natasha's face. Out of all the Avengers, she was the one he regretted leaving the most. "How are you, Nat?" he asked softly.

"Why?" Only those that knew Natasha very well would know how upset she was in that word. Her eyes held no emotion, as did none of her face, but her body was as tense as a spring, ready for a fight or flight response. "Why did you tell us you were alive now? Why bother if you haven't all this time?"

"You don't think I've wanted to?" he asked incredulously. "But with trying to fight HYDRA, plus some other, possibly world ending events, we couldn't just land in here and tell you all that the basis of the formation of the original Avengers was a lie, could I? Now everything, at least, is stable, and I figured some of you might need time to absorb this." His eyes flicked towards Natasha momentarily and she glared at him. "This brings me on to my second reason, which is that we wanted to formally ask if the Avengers could be our allies, so that if other possible world ending events occur, we would be stronger together."

"Why would you even ask that, Coulson?" Tony asked incredulously. "Of course we would!"

Steve cleared his throat. "You're certain that HYDRA is gone, Director Coulson?"

"I believe that we have worked to the best of our ability to make that statement true, Captain Rogers."

Steve's eyes narrowed but he said nothing.

"Before you decide," Coulson said quickly as Tony and Natasha were staring daggers at Steve, as if daring him to further question Coulson's capabilities, "We have the third reason."

"Which is?"

Coulson nodded to Fitz, who went out of the room. "We have been looking for a missing person recently, and it's someone that we think Captain Rogers knows of," Coulson explained. Steve looked at him in confusion.

"I'm only out of the ice five years. You know that, Coulson."

"Trust me, you'll know this guy," Coulson said with a well concealed smile as Fitz came back in, followed by Bucky and Cecy, who slipped in behind them. Steve went white.

Bucky met his gaze. "You've got a new uniform? I hate it."

 _ **Aaaand boom goes the dynamite.**_

 _ **Hope you guys enjoyed, review for a faster update! ;)**_


	9. Chapter 9

**_Sorry to leave you all on such a cliffhanger!_**

 ** _Hope you enjoy!_**

 _A few minutes earlier..._

"C'mon, Bucky, please sit down," Cecy pleaded, as Bucky paced up and down the hall. They were in a sort of side hallway, waiting for Fitz to come and get them. The team had all gone into the Avengers meeting, but Cecy had stayed with Bucky. She was glad she had. Beads of sweat were glistening on his forehead. "You're working yourself up."

Bucky either ignored her or was too lost in his own thoughts to hear her, because he kept pacing. Sighing, Cecy got up and grabbed his shoulders as he nearly walked into her. He jumped back at her touch.

"Sorry," she apologised, as she sat down again.

He shook his head. "S'alright."

"C'mon Bucky, sit down, please," she begged again. "You're making me nervous now."

He sat down on the chair next to her.

"What's wrong, Bucky?"

Bucky met her gaze and sighed. Over the last few days she had spent hours upon hours bringing him up to spend on all that had gone on in the world since he had gone into the ice. He had become quite fond of her in such a short space of time, and could see why Fitz was so protective of her. He felt it now too.

But Fitz's confession about her sister was weighing heavily on him, and with each passing day he felt more and more guilty. Steve had always said that he was terrible at keeping secrets, and seventy years worth of hibernation had definitely not changed that.

"Nothing," he lied, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously, before her expression softened and she held his hand, the real one.

"You don't have to lie to me, Bucky," she said softly. "I think I know what's wrong."

He blinked. "You do?"

She nodded sadly. "You're afraid of how Steve is going to react."

He opened his mouth to contradict her and shut it again. He wasn't worried about Steve's reaction half as much as Steve should be worried about his own. He was planning on giving that punk a piece of his mind.

Though he was slightly worried, he did admit to himself. But currently, the weight of what Fitz had told him was weighing a lot heavier than what Steve might say to him later.

"A little." So it wasn't technically a lie.

She squeezed his hand. "Don't worry," she said gently. "From what Hill told us, he's really missed you. He'll be really happy to see you again."

"Thanks Cecy."

There was silence for a few moments. Cecy started to hum a song that Bucky faintly recognised from a day ago, when she tried to educate him on modern music. The taste of music had definitely moved on, along with everything else.

"Cecy?"

"Hmm?"

"I-," the words stuck in his throat. Cecy looked at him expectantly, as he took a deep breath. "That's not everything that's bothering me."

"Okay," she said slowly. Bucky could nearly hear the wheels in her head turning as she tried to figure out what he was going to say.

"I just, it's been bothering me for a few days now, and I feel like if I'm going to go crazy if I don't tell you."

She looked at him with concern and squeezed his hand again. "Then tell me."

He stood up abruptly, so she mirrored him, and stood facing him. Bucky took one look at her wide, honest, worried eyes and abandoned ship.

"I just- I'm really gonna miss you, Cecy."

Her eyes shone for a moment. "Me too," she murmured, smiling weakly at him.

Instinctively he pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on top of her head, realising that what he had said was true. He was going to miss her a lot. Anything he wanted to know about the world today she answered kindly and patiently and never once made him feel stupid or idiotic. But more than that, she was sweet and kind, and he was going to miss her and her cackling laugh any time he played a prank on Fitz or Hunter.

An awkward throat clearing sounded behind him, and they both turned to see Fitz. "They're ready for you now."

Cecy pulled away from him. "Sure thing, Fitz." She smiled up at Bucky, straightened his tie, and offered him her hand. "Ready Sarge?"

"Yes ma'am." He took her hand and she squeezed it as they followed Fitz to the briefing room. She let go as Fitz opened the door, and pushed him in first. All of a sudden Bucky realised he was in a room where everyone was looking at him with varying levels of shock of their faces. His eyes found Steve's, two bright blue orbs that stood out strongly against his deathly pale face. He looked different from the last time he had seen him too. He was definitely older, and he had a new uniform now. But more than that, he held himself differently. There was a new type of confidence around him the Bucky couldn't remember being there before.

"You got a new uniform?" he remarked, striding over to where Steve sat, frozen in shock. "I hate it."

Steve shakily got to his feet as Bucky approached him. "Buck-"

He was cut off abruptly, because Bucky punched him in the face.

There was a crack and Steve stumbled back, holding his jaw. The other Avengers stood up, getting ready to hold Bucky down, but he didn't see any of them. He only saw Steve.

"You FUCKING idiot!" He exploded as he shoved Steve again. ""You stupid, stupid bastard! What the BLOODY HELL possessed you to crash a FUCKING PLANE into the Artic?! You could have given coordinates and jumped out the back but nO, "My impulse control fell out of the train with Bucky!" How could you be so reckless?! You're not invincible, Steve, how many fucking times do I have to tell you?! And don't even get me started on that bloody battle of New York. A sane person would have taken a holiday, catch up on what they missed, seeing as they had been ASLEEP FOR SEVENTY YEARS and ONLY 10 DAYS OUT OF THE FUCKING ICE but instead you decide to fight in another FUCKING WAR-"

He continued to rip into Steve for a full ten minutes without stopping, and would have continued for another while, if he didn't need to stop to take a breath. He stood, glaring down at Steve, seeming to tower over him even though they were exactly the same height, with his breath coming out in short indignant bursts.

There was a beat of silence and nobody moved or spoke.

Then Steve tentatively reached out and gripped Bucky's right shoulder, as if he still couldn't believe it was in front of him. "Bucky?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Yeah, it's me."

The two men stared at each other, Steve's hand still on Bucky's shoulder. Then suddenly the two men were hugging each other so fiercely it was surprising that there was no bone broken in their exchange. "It is me, you stupid punk," Bucky's voice came muffled from against Steve's shoulder. "No need to blubber all over me."

They broke apart and stood grinning at each other with red eyes. Simmons was crying silently, so Fitz put his arm around her and she rested her head against his shoulder. Cecy grinned though she could feel her eyes starting to burn. Her phone rang suddenly so she looked at the caller ID. It was a blocked number. Not entirely unusual in her line of work, but as several of the Avengers looked around to see whose phone was ringing she answered it quickly. She turned away from the group, not realising that the Director's eyes were still on her.

"Hello?"

A voice that Cecy wasn't sure she'd ever hear again came down the phone.

"Cecy? Cecy is that you? Cecy, please, you've got to help me!"

"Mandy?"

 _ **Thanks to all that reviewed, followed and favourite-ed!**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Sorry I haven't updated in AGES, but I'm on holidays now so I should be updating more regularly.**_

 _ **Hope you enjoy!**_

The phone slipped from Cecy's grasp and was caught by Coulson's waiting hand. Cecy's hand shook as she reached out to take it back and put the phone next to her ear. Coulson put his hand on her back and lead her quickly outside the room. She slid down the wall and clutched the phone desperately. There was a buzzing in her ears and she shook her head to try to clear it, so that she could hear her sister's voice again and make sure it wasn't a dream.

"Cecy? Are you still there?"

"Y-yeah," Cecy answered hoarsely and cleared her throat. "Where are you Mandy? How did you get this number?"

"Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me, Amanda." An unexplainable rage built up in Cecy's chest. "Please, enlighten me on where you've been for the last FIVE YEARS!"

"I know, and I'm sorry, I'll explain everything soon but I need you to help me."

"Why? What's happened?"

"Are you alone?"

Cecy glanced up at the Director, who was standing across from her, leaning against the wall. He caught her eye and gave a quick nod.

"Yeah, why?"

"Where are you?"

"Where are _you_?"

"Cecy!"

"I'm in Manhattan, happy?"

"So am I. SHIELD is tracking me, and I need your help to get away."

"Come off it Mandy!"

"I'm serious! I don't know what they want, and I need you to help me, please! You're still working with SHIELD?"

"Yeah."

"Well, find out who these guys are, they've been on my tail for a few days, then meet me in Central Park in an hour and a half, at the fountain."

"Mandy, what are you trying to hide? Seriously, you've only been in witness protection, they can't arrest you for that!"

Mandy sighed. "Some things are a bit more complicated than that, Cecy. I'll see you later." There was a click and she was gone.

"Mandy?" Cecy called down the phone. "Mandy!"

She threw the phone down and put her head in her hands. Coulson knelt down next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"You heard all that, sir?"

Coulson sighed heavily. "I did, Cecelia."

"What the hell is she talking about?" Cecy looked up at the Director. "No one at SHIELD knew she was alive, did they?"

Coulson didn't answer and fixed his gaze on the floor.

"Who's following her, sir?"

"Bobbi and Skye."

"Why?"

"We think," Coulson said slowly, "that she might be working for HYDRA."

She had to take a second to process what Coulson had just said. "No." She shook her head violently. "That's not possible."

Coulson slipped three photographs out of his inside pocket and handed them to her. "The last one was taken a week ago."

The first picture showed Mandy in a sleeveless HYDRA uniform, with a tattoo of the HYDRA skull branded onto her left arm. "She could have been undercover," Cecy persisted. "I know Mandy, she hates tattoos."

Coulson said nothing, so Cecy went to the second picture, which showed her and Grant Ward sitting at a table in a coffee shop, Ward talking and Amanda looking over her shoulder covertly. "That could have been taken when they were going out," Cecy said desperately. Coulson was purposely not looking at her now.

She got to the third picture and gagged, staring at it in horror. It should a man's dead body, with the words "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place," carved into the stomach. At the bottom of the picture, it read in small print "Positive ID-Amanda Lewis."

"That man was a former HYDRA member turned informant for SHIELD, he was in witness protection. Bobbi and Skye went to check it out last week, and the fingerprints found on the body match the ones we have in the system of Amanda," Coulson explained. "I am so, so sorry, Cecelia."

Fitz opened the door behind them, beaming from ear to ear, but it slowly vanished as he looked at Coulson and Cecy. "What's happened?"

Coulson looked down at Cecy, his hand still on her shoulder. She was staring straight ahead with her mouth half open, her gaze out of focus. "She just received a call from her sister. She knows everything now."

Fitz went white and in a second he was on his knees in front of Cecy. "Hey," he said, "Talk to me." He tapped her knee when she was unresponsive. "Cess, you need to breathe."

"You know, I thought she was dead for a long time," Cecy whispered, looking up at Fitz. "I had accepted it. But now-" Her eyes welled up suddenly, "she's a traitor Fitz, what am I going to do?"

She burst into tears and Fitz pulled her into him, rubbing her back gently. "It's alright, hush now," he murmured softly. Over her shoulder, he looked up at Coulson. "You're needed in there, sir, I've got this."

"Her sister wants them to meet, with all the information we have on Bobbi and Skye," Coulson said, "We need to work out what to do before I talk to the Avengers. If HYDRA's starting to build itself back up again, we'll need to know the full scale."

"The full scale of what?" Bucky asked as he came to the door. "Cecy?" He was on his knees faster than Fitz had been. "What happened?"

She buried her face in Fitz's shoulder but she had stopped crying and was taking deep calming breaths. She turned away from Bucky and wiped her eyes with her the back of her hand. Bucky automatically pulled his handkerchief out of his suit pocket and handed it to her. She took another deep breath and faced him. "Mandy just called me," she said, her voice cracking halfway, "and Coulson says she's with HYDRA. I'm so sorry, Bucky, but I thought they were gone, we all did, but-"

"Hey, hey, there's no need to apologise to me," he interjected quickly, though he had involuntarily flinched as she said HYDRA. "It's not your fault. Besides," he said brightly, "if they hadn't messed me up, I wouldn't have met you, would I?"

She shook her head slowly, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. "Cecy," he said gently, as if reading her mind, "this isn't your fault, alright? There's nothing you could have done. Your sister made her own choices."

She nodded again at the ground, then looked up at Coulson with determination etched in her face. "We'll need to tell the Avengers everything," she said, standing up slowly and wiping her face with Bucky's handkerchief to remove the last tear tracks on her face. "We don't have much time, if I'm to meet her soon."

"Are you sure, Cecelia?"Coulson said seriously.

She nodded. "Positive."

They followed Coulson into the room. Bucky and Fitz shared a worried look as Cecy entered ahead of them.

"Okay everyone," Coulson called out and the chatter stopped immediately. "We have a situation."

"What type of situation?" Clint asked. "Like, a life or death situation, an world ending situation, maybe a-"

Natasha reached over and smacked Clint on the head to shut him up.

"Life or death, possibly," Coulson answered gravely, and the room was silent. Cecy bowed her head and stared at the ground. Bucky subtly reached over and slipped his hand into hers. No one but Fitz and Steve noticed this interaction. "So firstly, do you accept our offer, to be SHIELD's allies once more?"

"Depends on if you've told us the whole truth about HYDRA, Director Coulson," Steve asked conversationally.

"Well, that is the situation, I'm afraid. One of our agents just received a call from-"

Cecy cleared her throat and Coulson looked back at her in surprise. "My sister, Amanda Lewis. She wanted to know everything about two agents that have been tracking her for the past few days, and she wants me to meet her in less than an hour and a half in Central Park to help her escape."

"Amanda Lewis?" Natasha said in surprise, as she looked at Clint, then Coulson. "You think she's with HYDRA?"

"We know she's with HYDRA," Cecy interjected.

"She's not working alone either," May spoke up. "We think she's working with Grant Ward, who was one of our best agents, also HYDRA. We thought he had been killed sometime before HYDRA's defeat, but we've seen CCTV of them together in various areas around the world in the past two weeks."

"Well, we've learned that SHIELD is absolutely shocking at keeping people dead today," Tony quipped sarcastically, clapping his hands together. He counted aloud with his fingers. "That's at least three resurrections today alone!"

Rhodes gave him an exasperated look and shook his head. "Time and a place, Tony."

Coulson glanced sideways at Cecelia for confirmation as he took the pictures out from his suit pocket, and Cecy nodded and looked at the ground. Coulson passed the pictures around to the Avengers and watched the varying levels of shock on their faces. Wanda had gone white and only looked at the last picture for half a second before turning away.

"So this is a sister of one of your agents that's still in SHIELD, correct?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, me," Cecy spoke up, "and Amanda was recruited a few years before me."

"I know this woman," Steve said, "She's the person they sent in when I came out of the ice."

Sam was still eyeing Cecy mistrustfully.

"Are you sure HYDRA has been completely wiped out of SHIELD, Director Coulson?" Rhodes asked, "Sometimes these things can run in the family." He was looking at Cecy now too.

"I can personally vouch for Cecilia when I say she is definitely one of us," Coulson said firmly, "So you can all stop worrying about that."

Cecy cast Coulson a grateful look and Bucky squeezed her hand in comfort.

"The information of the last picture of the corpse came through to us on the same day I sent out the drones to look for Sergeant Barnes," Coulson said.

"So you think this has something to do with me?" Bucky asked in surprise.

"Either that or it's a very odd coincidence," Coulson answered. "Maybe they know you were experimented on by HYDRA."

Bucky flinched involuntarily again but Coulson had turned away. Cecy squeezed his hand.

"So," Coulson addressed the Avengers, "will you help us?"

Steve eyed Bucky, who still held Cecelia's hand, and sighed. "Yes Director," he agreed, "We weren't really busy today anyway."

"Is that sass I detect, Captain?" Tony put a hand to his chest and gasped.

Steve gave him one glare and he shut up immediately. "Let's get started."

 ** _Thanks again to all who have followed, favourite-ed and subscribed!_**


	11. Chapter 11

**_Hello all!_**

 ** _This might be the fastest I've ever updated a chapter on a story!_**

 ** _I think this is one of the longest chapters I've ever done too! ;-)_**

 ** _Anyway, I think I changed how Bucky and the other soldiers got captured for the sake of the story, its only a small thing anyway in this chapter._**

 ** _Hope you all enjoy!_**

 _A few days previous..._

Bucky sat bolt upright, sweating all over and shaking. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his heads as he tried to remember where he was, until it all came back to him.

He was in the future.

All his friends, except Steve, were dead.

He took deep breaths and shivered again, feeling the coldness of the room even though his super solider skin. He tried to separate what had been real and what had been a dream. He still felt cold to the core, and knew he wouldn't warm up sitting alone in the room. He grabbed a hoodie from the wardrobe SHIELD had provided and set off down the hall.

Even though it was two in the morning, the corridors were teeming with agents in the night shift. For a half an hour he wandered through the halls, glancing into different rooms as he passed them, marvelling at the leaps in technology since he had been around last.

He came to a room with no windows at the side but the door was half open. Feeling a gust of warm air from the room as he passed, he doubled back and peeked in.

The room was empty except for a girl with her back to him at a laptop. She was sitting at what Cecy had called an "island" earlier, in a room that seemed like a kitchen to Bucky's eyes. He saw a kettle and, suddenly feeling hungry, went into the room to try to find something to eat. As he approached the island, he saw that the girl was indeed Cecy, and she had fallen asleep with her head resting on her hand, giving the illusion from behind that she was reading something on the screen. Bucky scanned the screen as he past. She was researching the Cold War and had a notebook and pen beside her, which she had written in how the Cold War and World War 2 were linked. Bucky chuckled quietly, realising that she was doing all this research for the next history lesson with him tomorrow.

Quietly he made his way around the kitchen, searching for something edible before slamming a cupboard door shut by accident as it slipped out of his hand. Cecy woke with a jump.

"M'up!" she declared, scanning the room dizzily before rubbing her eyes and yawning. She blinked hard a few times before her gaze landed on Bucky. She grinned sheepishly and blushed. "Caught in the act, I guess."

Bucky grinned with her. "You're not the first to fall asleep on duty. I used to do it all the time, it drove Steve crazy."

"I'm sorry we can't reunite you two sooner," Cecy apologised. "Protocol is a pain in the rear end sometimes."

"You're doing your best. Besides, it's not all bad. I get to catch up on what I've missed from a very intelligent and attractive teacher." He winked cheekily at her.

Cecy laughed. "You mean Fitz, right?"

"Obviously," Bucky retorted, and they both laughed again.

"What are you doing up anyway Sarge?" Cecy asked curiously, while closing up her laptop.

"I was feeling hungry," he replied, not looking at her. "You?"

Now it was Cecy's turn to be uncomfortable. "Much the same reasons as you," she admitted.

Bucky nodded while still staring at the ground.

"I'll put the kettle on," Cecy suggested, as she jumped up and filled it with water. "The solution to any problem is a cup of tea."

"Where did you hear that?" Bucky asked curiously.

"Fitzsimmons, and they're both British so they know all about tea."

"Fair enough," Bucky grinned. "Hey, Cecy," he said, suddenly curious, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why did you join SHIELD?"

Cecy shrugged. "My sister was the main reason, I guess. I idolised her growing up, and when these two men came to the door to recruit her I idolised her even more. She was sent to the operative's college and she graduated top of her class," she said proudly, as Bucky's stomach squirmed with guilt, Fitz's warning the only reason he kept his mouth shut. "They came for me a few years later, but I was sent to the science college, and I was recruited straight after graduation. I worked in the main headquarters until HYDRA was found, and when the new SHIELD was founded I was put working with Fitzsimmons. That was four years ago, and now here we are." She grinned at him and poured him some tea, and went to a cupboard to get some biscuits. She put her finger on a scanner next to the handle for the door and it scanned her fingerprint and opened it.

"I didn't realised people around here were so protective of their food," Bucky said, grinning.

"Oh, you should see it at Christmas," Cecy exclaimed. "It's like a battlefield. Fitz made the scanner so people would stop stealing our food, so we share this cupboard. Simmons has her own one though, she still doesn't trust him. He can still get into it and steals a biscuit or two sometimes, but she doesn't know that."

Bucky laughed. "I wouldn't like to get on her bad side."

"You and every other sensible person in the world." Cecy grinned. "So, are you going to tell me the real reason why you're wandering around at half past two in the morning?"

Bucky stared into his tea. "I had a dream about the fall," he said softly, "and after that I couldn't sleep."

Cecy bit her lip. He was still staring into his tea like it held all the answers to the universe. "My guess it wasn't pleasant."

Bucky bowed his head and nodded once.

Without thinking Cecy crossed the distance the island put between them and put her hand on his real forearm. "I'm sorry."

Bucky stared at where her hand was in confusion and she made to take it way, but he grabbed her hand with his and held it tightly. Cecy looked at his face. His lips were clamped together and his eyes were squeezed shut. Cecy slipped her hand out of his and wrapped both arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder, which she could manage since he was sitting down. For a split second his arms hung limply at his sides, and Cecy wondered had she crossed the line, after all they were a lot more aloof and into personal space back in the forties. But almost as soon as the thought entered her head he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tightly to him.

They stayed hugging each other for a while before Cecy asked softly, "Do you want to talk about it?" She pulled back and looked at him though he still had his arms around her. "I've been told I'm a good listener."

Bucky sighed. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

Cecy held her hand out. "Deal."

They shook hands, and Bucky sighed again, before looking around at the door. "How likely is it that someone will walk through that door?"

"Not very, but you never can be sure with this place," Cecy admitted. "Look, my room is warm and I have more food there, and a TV. Plus there's a lot less of a chance of being walked in on than there is here." She nodded towards the door. "If you want to."

"Sure," Bucky agreed. "Lead the way."

Cecy packed up her laptop and made her way to her room, Bucky falling into step next to her. She opened the door to her room and held it open for him. Bucky surveyed the room with interest.

There was a double bed in the middle of the room, with a TV mounted on the wall opposite. There was a table and two chairs near the window, with at the moment was showing the view of the Grand Canyon. Cecy put her laptop down on the table and opened the door of her beside locker, and tossed Bucky a bag of marshmallows. "I hate them," she explained, "But Jemma thinks I like them so she keeps getting them for me. So if you could dispose of the evidence that would be great." She plopped down on her bed and gestured for him to do the same.

It was a lot warmer in here than it was in his room, Bucky noted, as he sat down.

"So," Cecy said, as she opened a packet a chocolate biscuits and offered him one. "Whenever you're ready, Sarge."

Bucky accepted a biscuit and began. "It started off with me and the guys planning an attack," Bucky started, "We were going to seize what we thought was a disused HYDRA facility and we were prepared for a few odd soldiers hiding there. We didn't know it was fully operational." Bucky shuddered. "We didn't stand a chance, and we had to surrender."

Cecy knew this part of the story. How Barnes and his team were captured was one of the first things about him she had memorised.

"Then everything got messed up. I remember being injected with this stuff in one of the torture chambers and suddenly feeling really, really cold. Next thing I know I'm falling off a train, and I split my head off something and I wake up, freezing."

Cecy guessed this was an abridged version of events but let it go. "Was it cold in your room, Bucky?"

Bucky nodded. "When I woke up it was."

"It must be that bloody timer; I'll get Fitz to look at it tomorrow. That room isn't used to having people in it so the heating is turned off at twelve." She grabbed a pen and scribbled _heating-Fitz_ on the back of her hand. "The cold must have been a trigger of some kind," she explained. "I'm really sorry, Bucky."

"Thanks," he said, smiling, "but it isn't your fault. And what about you anyway? What's your reasoning to be up at this crazy hour?"

"I'm not a big fan of sleep, strangely enough," she grimaced. "So I try to avoid it as much as possible, unless I'm super, super tired, then I can't help it."

"Why?"

"Being in the lab with Fitzsimmons is great, but some of the stuff we've had to analyse over the past few years...,"she squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered. "Some of it comes back to me when I'm asleep."

Bucky still looked puzzled.

"Some of the weapons HYDRA has developed over the years are designed to kill people in the most painful ways known to mankind," Cecy explained, "and we've had to analyse the body count. I've seen friends, good agents, hit with guns that burned them from the inside out, some who've have limbs sawed off by axes, been burned alive," she twisted her hands into her hair in frustration. "The brain doesn't let you forget stuff like that easily."

She bit her lip again and Bucky cautiously put his arm around her. "Have you ever anyone about this?"

"Yup," she grinned, "just now," before changing the subject. "Want to watch a movie? You have missed some great leaps in cinema during your time in the ice, my friend."

oOo

From some reason, the memory played in Bucky's mind as he watched Cecy get wired up to go meet her sister. "I don't like this," he said to Steve, "I don't like this at all."

"Don't worry," Steve assured him, "She'll be okay."

Bucky ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "It just feels like how it did when we tried to take the HYDRA base. Something big is going to go down, I can feel it." He turned to Steve, "And you're certain no one can go with her?"

"Are you sweet on her?" Steve asked suddenly.

"What? No!"

" _Bucky_."

"I'm just _worried_ ," he said, "She was the first person I met when I woke up, and she's been nothing but kind and helpful to me, and I'd rather not see her _killed_."

"You're still a really bad liar Bucky," Steve said, grinning. But the grin slipped quickly from his face as he took in Bucky's determined one. "Director Coulson," he walked over to where Coulson was in deep conversation with May, worry clear on both their faces.

"Yes Captain?" Coulson looked up in surprise.

"Are you sure that no one can accompany Agent Lewis to see her sister? Bucky's worried about her, and he has a hunch something big is going to happen. I've learned to trust his hunches, he's usually right."

"I wish I could say yes, Cap," Coulson said, sighing, "But Ward knows every single one of our agents, and if he's with Amanda he'll know something's up. Same with the Avengers"

Steve frowned. Coulson was right. He looked around the room, and watched as Bucky spoke to Cecy, before he reached forward and hugged her tightly. A light bulb went off in Steve's head.

"Sir, what if we let Bucky go? No one knows he's alive except for the Avengers and SHIELD."

"It's risky," Coulson hesitated, before he looked over Steve's shoulder and saw the two. "But, there's safety in numbers, I guess." He put a hand to his forehead. "Get him wired up."

"Thanks sir." Steve went over and clapped Bucky on the back. "Suit up, man," he said. "You're going with her."


	12. Chapter 12

"I still can't believe they allowed you to do this," Cecy said softly as she walked arm in arm with Bucky through Central Park. She felt like she was going to be sick, but she was glad Bucky was with her. Coulson had taken her aside before she left and told her that Mandy probably wouldn't be the same person she used to know, and Bobbi and May had taught her same basic self defence moves in case things went south. Privately, Cecy knew she didn't stand a chance against either Ward or her sister, and was a lot more comfortable knowing that Bucky would be close by.

"And what kinda guy would I be if I let you wander around Central Park all on your own?" Bucky replied with a grin, trying to keep things light.

"Thank you, though," she said quietly.

Bucky unhooked his arm from hers and slipped his arm around her shoulders, and she put hers around his waist. "Don't mention it, sweetheart."

"Whoa, since when am I 'sweetheart'?"

"What, you don't like it? I have multiple others to choose from," Bucky said, grinning. "Doll, doll face, angel, angel face-"

Cecy cut him off and laughed. "I get the idea."

Bucky laughed with her, until she stopped dead in her tracks. He turned to look at her. She was rooted to the spot, staring straight ahead of her with wide eyes. He followed her line of sight and saw a tall, slim, fashionably dressed woman with shades sitting by the fountain on one of the benches, looking in the opposite direction.

Bucky turned back to Cecy. "Is that her?"

Cecy nodded and gulped, closing her open mouth.

"You'll be okay," he assured her, slipping his arm around her again, "and I'll be right here the whole time."

Cecy nodded again, not looking at him. "Let's go, angel face."

Bucky burst out laughing and out of the corner of his eye saw Amanda's head snap in their direction. Cecy grinned at his laughter and as they walked towards Amanda, she stood up.

Bucky took his arm away from Cecy as the two sisters faced each other. He couldn't see any similarities between them, until Amanda took off her sunglasses. Their eyes were the exact same. Amanda's were wide with shock. "Cecy?" she said disbelievingly.

"Hi Mandy," Cecy replied.

"Look at you! You've grown up so much!" Amanda exclaimed as she held Cecy by her shoulders, looking her up and down.

"I'm twenty five, Mandy," Cecy reminded her with a hint of exasperation.

"I know I just...I've really missed you," Amanda said tentatively as her grip on Cecy's shoulders tightened.

"Me too," Cecy whispered as the two hugged each other tightly. Bucky looked away, giving the sisters their moment and instead scanned the park for any signs of the man called Ward.

They broke apart after a while and Cecy asked, "Where have you been all this time, Mandy?"

"Well, I-" she cut herself off as she realised Bucky was still there. "Who's this, Cess?"

"Oh, this is Jack," Cecy introduced Bucky under the fake name they had agreed upon. "He's my... um..."

"Boyfriend," Bucky finished with a smile as he shook hands with Amanda. "And a pleasure it is to meet you, Ms Lewis. I've heard so much about you from Cess."

Amanda looked from Cecy to Bucky in surprise. "And where did you two meet?"

"The Brooklyn Café," Bucky supplied readily. "She was in Manhattan for work, and I had the pleasure of serving her, and it went from there." He swung his arm around Cecy and grinned at her.

Amanda nodded in understanding and smiled. "Well Jack, it's lovely to meet you, but I have some very important business to attend to with my sister."

"Oh sure," Bucky agreed. "I must ring my mom anyway. I'll be over there if you need me." He pointed to one of the benches and kissed Cecy on the cheek as he made his way over to it.

"He seems sweet," Amanda observed as they both watched Bucky sit on the bench and put the phone to his ear.

"He is," Cecy agreed, still bright red from when he'd kissed her. "He's great."

Amanda looked at her sideways. "You really fancy him, don't you?"

Cecy just grinned and blushed, fully aware that Bucky, as well as most of SHIELD and the Avengers could hear her. "I guess so," she admitted.

Amanda smiled and tapped her watch absentmindedly, and all of a sudden a high pitched shriek filled Cecy's ears and she clapped her hands over them in pain.

"I presume you don't want to see him suffer then," she continued in the same conversational tone, as Cecy realised her earpieces weren't working; all she could hear was static. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bucky realise the same thing, as he got up and started to walk towards them with the phone still at his ear.

"One more step and he dies," Amanda warned in a low voice, so Cecy gave him a cheery smile and a wave, their prearranged signal that everything was going alright. Bucky tightly smiled back at her before going back to the bench, still keeping an eye on them.

"What the hell do you want?" Cecy pleaded.

"You should have come alone like I told you," Amanda chided. "It would've been easier on both you and Bucky."

"How do you-"

"Please, Cecelia, HYDRA is the reason he's still alive." Cecy could have kicked herself. Of course she recognised him. "But of course, SHIELD swoops in at the last moment, when we had spent _months_ trying to find him. Just like always, taking credit for our brilliance."

"Brilliance?" Cecy said in disbelief. "Is that what you call murdering millions of innocent people?"

"Cecy, Cecy, you don't understand," Amanda said with a tone of a patient adult trying to explain something very difficult to a small child. "But don't worry, you will soon."

Cecy jumped up, and Amanda mirrored her. "Never!" she shouted and took off running towards Bucky. Bucky stood up and began to run towards her, holding out his hand. As Cecy ran she saw Ward standing a few feet behind Bucky, pointing a gun straight at him. She barely had time to scream, "Get down!" before an ear splitting bang from the gun sounded as Bucky dived to the ground. She ran faster and got to him a millisecond after Ward, who took aim again, but she tackled him to the ground and kicked the gun out of his hand. They struggled for another moment until Ward scooped her up like a child and carried her over to where Amanda hadn't moved from the bench. Cecy struggled so much that it was all Ward could do to keep a firm grip on her, so he couldn't turn around to finish Bucky off. Cecy prayed that, if he had any sense, he'd run and get back to warn the Avengers. He was her last thought as Amanda pressed a cloth over her mouth and nose, and she blacked out.

oOo

Cecy came around to the painful sensation of her eyelids being pinched. A second later she realised she couldn't blink, and her eyes began to sting. In front of her, consuming her entire line of vision was a big screen with pulsing neon lights and designs that slowly morphed into different colours. It was starting to give her a headache, and she wished she could close her eyes. She tried moving her hands and legs, but she was strapped down too tightly.

"Freedom, equality, fairness, what are all of these?" Ward's voice came from her right-hand side, though she couldn't see him. "Only meaningless labels tricking society into striving for a better life, when what they should be doing is going back to how it was before."

Cecy started taking deeper breaths as the flashing colours started to speed up. She could feel herself starting to sweat, and her head was pounding like Thor's hammer was knocking around in it.

"You want the pain to stop?" Amanda asked from the other side of her. "All you have to do is comply, Cecy."

"Don't you dare call me that!" Cecy shouted. "How could you do this, Amanda?"

"Compliance will be rewarded," Ward said simply, in the same eerily calm tone that Amanda had used in Central Park.

"What happened to Bucky?" Cecy asked through gritted teeth. The pain was unbelievable, and she prayed he wasn't suffering like this too.

"He's not your concern," Ward told her calmly.

Cecy bit down on her bottom lip hard to hold back a sob.

"Amanda, let's go again," said Ward. Cecy heard footsteps before the images began to pulse faster and faster, and let out a scream of frustration.

oOo

A few hours later Cecy was panting heavily and her eyes had glazed over. Amanda could see she was close to exhaustion, and was watching her carefully. Something deep inside her told her that this was wrong, but she paid it no attention. Ward had said that this was necessary to get Cecy on side, and Ward was always right.

"Do you want the pain to stop?" she asked her sister.

"Yes," Cecy whispered.

"All you have to do is comply. Comply and the pain goes away. Comply and you will be given new meaning and purpose."

Ward slipped into the room and shut the door behind him. He shared a look with Amanda and she nodded in confirmation. There was an almighty bang and they both felt the ground shake, but Cecy's gaze didn't waver from the screen. Ward strode straight over to her and looked into her eyes, their noses inches apart. Cecy kept her exhausted gaze on the screen behind him. There was another bang and the structure that Cecy was tied onto shook, and Ward put a hand on either side to steady it.

"Ready to comply, Agent Lewis?" Ward asked as she finally turned her tired gaze towards him, and nodded slowly.

"Ready to comply, sir."

 _ **It took me forever to work out how to write this chapter, so I hope you all enjoyed it! :D**_


	13. Chapter 13

Cecy had realised, as she screamed, that she was going to be brainwashed. She had seen enough victims of the Faustus method while working with Fitzsimmons to know what was going to happen to her. She knew that she was going to be taken to the brink of exhaustion to break her mentality completely, and after that point she couldn't be saved. She would no longer be in control of her own thoughts or actions, which petrified her.

So, she had devised a plan.

She would go through all the stages that the Faustus method victims would go through – the defiance, the anger, the exhaustion and finally the acceptance. She decided to go through the motions – only sped up a bit.

So when Ward looked into her eyes and asked her to comply, she accepted, and hoped she was convincing enough because she didn't know how much longer she could have held out for.

Ward looked straight into her eyes, looking like he could see right through her. She gazed back as vacantly as she could. He opened his mouth to say something, but another bang sounded and this time it shook the walls as well as the floor. Ward undid the contraption that was holding her eyelids open and her hands tied back, and she fell to the floor, feeling dizzy and weak. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and never wanted to open them again. However, that was no longer her decision to make.

"Open your eyes, Agent," Ward commanded and Cecy immediately opened them again. He stared into them again and seemed satisfied with what he saw there. "Hail Hydra."

"Hail Hydra," Cecy replied, tasting bile in her mouth.

Amanda smiled widely. "Finally!" she exclaimed as she hugged Cecy. "We did it, Grant, she's on our side!"

Ward grinned back and swung his arm around her. "Yes we did," he agreed as he kissed the side of her forehead. "But we're not done yet."

Almost as soon as he said this, the whole room shook so violently that Cecy saw various objects come tumbling off shelves and tables, before they were plunged into darkness. A few seconds later the emergency lights kicked in, and Cecy suddenly realised that she had no idea what day or time of the day it was.

The door banged open and a breathless HYDRA agent stood in the doorway, holding a rifle tightly in his hands. Behind him Cecy could see other agents racing through the corridor and shouting as alarms went off above them.

"Sir, they've taken out the power, our defence is severely compromised," he gasped, "We can't hold out for much longer, we need to get out."

"Thank you, Stevens," Ward replied as Amanda looked at him in confusion, "But I believe we have procedures in place for situations such as these-"

"Sir, please-"

"Tell the defence department I've authorised the use of Blacklock," Ward commanded.

The already pale faced agent went sheet white but nodded. "Yes sir. Hail Hydra."

"Hail Hydra," Ward replied and he left, slamming the door behind him.

"Grant, what's going on?" Amanda asked as Ward began to pace the room, pulling weapons and guns from the most unlikely of hiding places, and passing them to her.

"SHIELD and the Avengers are trying to take the building," Ward informed her distractedly.

"But how did they find us?" Amanda asked in confusion.

"Ask your sister," he replied and they both turned to Cecy.

"Cess?" Amanda asked doubtfully.

"Yes?"

"How do SHIELD and the Avengers know where we are?"

Cecy automatically put a hand to her ear. Her earpiece was still in. She slipped it out and held it, palm up, in her hand. "It has a tracker in it," she heard herself saying.

"But the electromagnetic pulse I sent out should have short circuited it," Amanda protested.

"Stark technology, combined with Fitz's old prototypes. The tracker isn't electronically based, it's biologically based, so it can't be destroyed electronically."

"Leopald Fitz is behind this?" Ward asked as he took the earpiece from her and examined it carefully.

"And Tony Stark."

Another HYDRA agent burst into the room. "Sir, it's worse than we thought," he exclaimed, "They've hit both our other bases now too. Sitwell sent a message from London. Everyone there has been either killed or arrested, and it's the same in Atlanta."

"Right. Take me to the defence department" Ward commanded, and he started after the other man. "We need to hold this base." He turned back to Amanda at the doorway. "Stay here and watch her," he commanded. He pushed a gun into her hands and kissed her hard on the lips.

"Be careful," she whispered as she rested her forehead against his.

"You too." He smiled at her, kissed her forehead and took off after the other agent.

Amanda shut the door behind him and sat on the ground with her back to it, holding the gun into her chest, her head down.

"You sure the safety's on?" Cecy joked.

Amanda looked up at her with over-bright eyes.

Cecy sat down next to her sister and Amanda put her head on her shoulder.

"What's going on, Mandy?" Cecy asked as they heard more agents rushing up and down the corridors, shouting and yelling, and the reoccurring bang that shook the room. They were getting less and less frequent now, and Cecy hoped it meant that the Avengers had the upper hand.

"What do you mean?"

"As in, why bring me here? What's my "new meaning and purpose" and all that?"

Amanda sighed and sat up. "I'll show you. Come on."

She stood up and held out a hand to Cecy and helped her up too. They walked over and faced a big metal bookcase. Amanda gestured for Cecy to hold on to the shelf part and, in full on James Bond style, she pulled the third book in on the top shelf and they swung around with the bookcase until they were in a completely different room. It reminded Cecy of an old style interrogation room – it was dingy and dimly lit. There was a table with files and sheets spread out on it, a whiteboard mounted on one wall and a blackboard mounted on the opposite, full of maps, diagrams and notes, joined together with red string. Where the boards ran out of space, the wall was used instead, and boxes of more files lined the walls too.

Cecy brushed her hand along the table in amazement, recognising Amanda's handwriting on the walls and on notebook pages dispersed all over the table. "What is all this?" she asked in amazement.

"How we're going to take down SHIELD," she answered with a grin, as she pushed a file into Cecy's hands, titled "The Winter Soldier."

 _ **Thanks for the reviews and follows and stuff, haven't been able to update as often as I thought I would, sorry!**_

 _ **I know this chapter is short, but I felt bad for not updating in a while!**_

 _ **Hope you all enjoyed! :)**_


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